Our Little Princess and another Quilt block

Our little Princess came by for a visit on Wednesday.  She is growing like a weed and drooling like crazy!

This is this month's block of the month, Peach Cobbler.  It is number 11 and today I will be picking up number 12, the last one in the year, before starting another year.

Some photos and bits and bobs......

As it was stinking hot on Sunday I went down the basement to my sewing room and put together my June block of the month.  It's another Pinwheel variation.  This was all cut on the bias, and I thought the most difficult one yet, not helped by the fact one of the fabrics they provided wasn't enough, so I subbed my own for the rectangle piece.  Not to fond of the colour way but still pleasing to the eye.

Dh decided to treat me to a Tim Hortons coffee; though due to the heat I had a frozen lemonade.  While in town we called in Zehrs where I picked up the three hair dyes, they were on clearance for $2 and I had $4 worth of coupons, so all three only cost me $2.78 and I have enough dye to last me the rest of the year.

We also called in at Sobeys as I had a free product coupon and a $1.50 coupon for the Dempster's Garden Vegetable bread. Personally I think it's an expensive product even when it's on sale at $2.99 a loaf as it's only a small loaf.  However with the coupons I only paid 75 cents a loaf.  I also had a $1 coupon for the sausages, and with cashing in $5 worth of points I only paid $1.96 in total.

Mind you I have managed to spend $288.58 this month with savings of $146.38.  So in theory I only have $11.42 in my budget for the rest of the month.

Not sure if you can see them in this photo but here are four of the baby squirrels.  I couldn't get the other three in the photo.  They are getting more and more adventurous and moving a little further afield.  

Another quilt block:

This month's quilt block is a Pinwheel Variation:

We have decided I will make dd quilt with this block as she likes it, as I do and it's not a difficult block to make.  Just need to remember to iron your seams the right way and match your seams up.  I just need to order some cream material as the background material from Fabric Spot.

I have made a start on the rabbit cross stitch (the photo turned sorry) :

One of the things you have to remember is that the back has to be as neat as the front.  I am mediocre to say the least at keeping my back as neat as my front!!!

Still feel as though someone has just sucked the energy right out of me.  I did manage to clean the bbq, so that was a good job, jobbed.  I also got two big loads of laundry washed and dried outside.  Plus got the bathrooms cleaned and our bed changed.  Also took off one of dh's blankets and turned off the heating!!  Not sure how long the last two things will last as I know dh feels the cold.

A couple photos........

I was lucky enough to have two birthday cakes on the weekend.  This one our little Princess' mother made for me.  It's a Hot Milk Cake and the recipe is from here.

This one dd made and is a carrot cake with cream cheese icing and it was really, really good.

Our little Princess was all in black on Friday(one of her Indian grannies is in the corner of the photo):

Here she is all bundled up ready to go home:

One of the things I did on Monday was stitch my latest block for the Quilting Club, it's called Indiana Puzzle.  I have never done a square in a square block before:

Finally we have a starling with a broken/damaged foot hanging around.  If I am supposed to do something please let me know?

This is the daughter of one of the guys at work singing. She is still in High School I think, so around 15 or 16 years of age. She is really good. I was singing along to this one, for some strange reason I didn't sound the same???

More sewing done and a problem

Managed to get three pairs of trousers mended, finally!!  All the machine stitching is done on the quilt, just the hand sewing to complete, will show you a photo of it on Thursday, very pleased with it.  I also got my block of the month sewn.  Left it to last minute this month, as the meeting is on Thursday.

When I saw this month's pattern I must admit to being very intimidated as it looks complicated.  Anyway turned out to be pretty simple as long as you followed the instructions.  It's called Whirlwind, and I think that an appropriate name as there is a lot of movement in the block I think.

I am slightly off on one of my main points, otherwise I am very happy with it.  Colour a bit *itty though this month!!

Now my problem.  We have a tiled counter top in our kitchen and in my personal opinion I think they tend not to be hygienic especially in the grout area.  As I want a new kitchen eventually I thought I'd look into seeing how much a piece of granite would be for the island.  It's around 27 inches by around 58 inches, or around 13 square feet.

We popped into a granite place on the weekend, and looked at samples and the lady said she had a piece of this nice granite that should could do a deal with us and it had a lot of "flow" in it, so when we eventually redo the rest of the kitchen this would be a feature piece of counter top.  I get the quote on Tuesday and it's for the piece of granite with all the edges rounded (very basic), we will pick up and install ourselves, with taxes around $1000.

I makes sense to get a nice piece of granite as we can redo the rest of the kitchen in a plainer piece of granite, or quartz or Corian, but $1000 for just the island?  I was thinking about getting a piece of laminate made, as I know a place that would do that, but had my heart set on something more durable.  

So does anyone know if there are any places in the Toronto, Mississauga, Newmarket, Barrie area where I can source out some cheaper granite.  Should say she was charging us $65 a square foot.

Busy Monday

I spent part of Monday morning filling and sanding the nail holes in the baseboard in the basement, then painting them. I have another coat to do today and that's another job taken care off in the basement.

In the afternoon I sewed this months block of the month for my quilting club and it is called Whirlpool.  I found this a fiddly block and YOU MUST follow the pressing instructions to the letter, otherwise you're seams may not join correctly.  Although the photo makes the block look blue it is purple.

I have five blocks done so far and will be picking up the instructions for the 6th one on Thursday:

With some of the blocks I am going to make a large table runner for our kitchen table, as I don't like the finishing kit that they are offering.

While I was sewing I was listening the a cd called Aquarius by the Danish group Aqua.  Do you remember them?  They were big in the late 1990'a to the early 2000.




I love the way Lene sings this song:

Another treasure and quilt blocks...

On Saturday we went up to the charity shop as I had put bids in on a couple of items.  A very funky chair in a gold/yellow/floral print and a side table.

I wish I had taken my camera as the chair went for $377.  It was so NOT worth that amount.  When they lifted it out of the window, folk in the store said they heard all the springs rattling around in it.  I was however lucky to "win" the side table with my bid of $45.  Look at the legs:

It has seem a lot of life and has a lot of scratches on it but I will put something on the top to cover it.

I wanted it to put it in the living room to put my Denby Encore Sweet Pea lamp on.  We haven't touched the living room yet, renovation wise.

I bought the burgundy chair at the same store the other week and here is where she sits.  All the woodwork is original to the house.

I did a little sewing also on Saturday and did the next block for my block of the month club.  It is the bottom one in the photo.

The top one is called Ribbon Quilt.  The middle block is Electric Fan Variation.  The bottom block is Yankee Puzzle.  My points are not exact and I need to size all the blocks.  The store supplies the material for the block, but you do have to buy all the finishing pieces for the quilt.  I am not going to buy the pack as I am not too keen on it.

Wanted to thank you all for all your help

yesterday with identifying the William Adams & Son piece.  I sent an email to the Wedgwood Museum in England, as they bought out the William Adams factory in the 60's, to see if they could actually identify the exact age re; the backmark, as I still could not find the exact one.  So fingers crossed they get back to me at some point.

I have joined a monthly quilting club.  It's costing a huge $10 for the year and the material is supplied for the quilt squares for each month.  This is the first month's square:

As you can see it's not perfect and that's because of the way I cut it out, not the way it was sewn.  Though I felt like a brand new quilter when attempting this block as it's been over a year since I last did any quilting.  Couldn't even remember how to use my 1/4 inch foot.......  Mind you I had better remember it soon, as I have a baby quilt to make for Thanksgiving Weekend.

I think I'll make a start on it today!!!

Some quilts from the Great Northern Exhibition...

As always there were some beautiful quilts on display at the show.  I loved the movement in this quilt and the colours.

This reminded me of the scrap quilt that I have to finish off, my goal is to have it quilted before the end of year....we'll see!!

This is one of the major winners, can't say I love this one, but it is nice........

This is the English paper piecing that I do with all the tiny hexagons.  I was so impressed with this one and the amount of work that went into it.

These are quilt blocks done by various people that had to have the theme "Country Roots and Cowboy Boots."  You are given three pieces of material, that has to be included in the quilt bock and you then let your creativity go wild.  I must admit, I didn't think the first prize winner was that exciting; there were better squares in my opinion.

Must admit though I do enjoy looking at everyone's work.

Sunday was a gorgeous day weather wise.  I spent most of the day outside in the garden.  Dug up my potatoes and was surprised at how many were in the ground, considering I had not weeded all year.  I also trimmed the willow trees and some other trees and had a fire on the firepit.

As I am writing this on Sunday night I have to say I am pooped with all the work done in the garden and my back is paying the price. 

Just to let you know I am going to be crazy busy this week, so may not get around to visiting your blogs, but will be posting as normal.

What did I do on my day off.........

Well after having a lie-in and not getting up until 10am.  I sat and had a relaxing cup of tea, with home made whole grain bread, with hand churned butter and some of my homemade raspberry jam, while flicking through a couple of those "gossip magazines."  I then had a shower and headed to the spa, where I spent the next three hours having a massage, a facial and a pedicure; having a small break in between treatments for a light spa lunch, of baby greens and a poached chicken breast, and chocolate mousse with fresh berries for afters with a soothing cup of green tea to finish with............ 

Hang on, that's my dream day....in reality, I was up before 6am, thank you Molly for that!!   By 10am I had cleaned the bathrooms, washed and hung out two loads of laundry.  Made numerous telephone calls, submitted the recipe book to the publishers.  Sent a few emails, cleaned our bedroom and "captured" all the dust bunnies living in there!! 

By lunch time I had ironed both loads of laundry, sorted out the raspberries from the night before; made a batch of fabric softener, recipe is here.  Tidied up in the family room.  After lunch I went to my quilt club meeting, and picked up this month's pattern which is a Bear Paw Pattern  I also picked up a Christmas panel for a small wall hanging:

This is a close up shot of part of it.

I get a free fat quarter every month from this club, and for the past couple of months I have been getting this ladybug material.  What would you suggest as a contrast material to go with it?

When I got back in I made fish cakes from the leftover mashed potatoes.  I made enough for two meals so froze the rest.  Here is a recipe for them from a prior post, the are so easy to make I would never dream of buying them.

I prepared a garden salad enough for both Tuesday and Wednesday nights supper.  So that all I have to do when I get in from work on Wednesday is pop the stuffed baked potatoes in the microwave for 10 minutes and pop into the toaster oven to crisp up the outside, probably 20 minutes; and pull out the salad and within 30 minutes, supper will be on the table.

I didn't get everything done like I wanted to, but achieved the main things I wanted to get done......

Obviously I didn't kill them all then....

I see there are the odd red raspberry on the bushes between the weeds. So I didn't kill them all. I am still a couple of weeks away from picking as it's a bit early yet, but there may be enough to make some jam with again.

I managed to get the brown, cream and pink quilt block done on Sunday.  I am pleased to be so ahead of the game this month.  Sewing is at the bottom of the list at the moment; but with it raining again Sunday it was a good job to get done.

Now if you click on the photo of dh's finger you will see the full extent of his "wound."  Dh was harping on about the fact that he will have a deformed finger.  However as I pointed out, it's not like he's going to be giving up his day job as an electrician to be a hand model, now is it?

If you see me in real life, look on my forehead to see if you can see the word "Sucker/Idiot" on it.  That daft dog of ours has got me wrapped about her little finger/paw.  She doesn't like going out in the rain, just like me.  However on Sunday night she was hopping around, so dh tried to let her out and she wouldn't go.  Then I tried and she wouldn't go so I carried on sewing.  However I knew something was up, so I put on my coat and took her outside on the leash.  She went out no problem and both peed and pooped.  Only we would have a dog that likes us to observe her going to the bathroom.  Mind you she is probably laughing at me for being such a mug and standing out there in the rain with her!!

 Then finally the thugs/protesters at the G20.  It's all over our news about the protests with the protesters complaining of police brutality etc.  One woman was complaining about the police, and how afraid her 4 year old daughter was.  Excuse me, but what sane parent would take their 4 year old child to a protest???

Here are more news stories  One thing I know for sure, the leaders of the G20 really need to rethink the whole meeting procedure, as at a cost of 1 billion dollars for a four day meeting (for both the G 8 and G20 summits) the whole thing is way out of whack.  That money could have been used for a much better purpose and hundreds of thousands of lives wouldn't have been disrupted like they were.

One thing I was pleased to hear though was that Barack Obama, didn't get it all his own way, that our Prime Minister finally found his back bone and stood up to him.  What good it did him I don't know, but finally a little bit of leadership from our "leader!"

True Lovers Knot Quilt Block and more photos from downtown

It was raining on Wednesday.  I had visitors that popped in for a couple of hours, and so in the afternoon I decided to get the quilt blocks done for the block of the month club.  It's called True Lover's Knot this month and is really pretty, well at least I thought so.

I have to say though, when I Googled True Lover's Knot quilt block I couldn't find an exact match to this quilt block, so I have a feeling it may have another name?  Let me know the quilters out there.

There are still another three months to go for the block of the month club.  I should have nine made now.

I loved how this guy was sitting feeding the pigeons in front of city hall.

Another view of City Hall

Old City Hall, which is next door.

Reflection of Old City Hall clock in the modern glass building.

A very modern looking bicycle taxi.

I enjoy going downtown Toronto, as there is always so much to see.

Finally some words of wisdom:

I'm pooped.........

the heat is a bit too much for me and Molly.

I was out in the garden just after 7am on Tuesday and managed to get the soil moved into the new garden.  It's still not finished yet as I have to buy more edging.  I was disappointed with the quality of soil/compost mix I got.  It was full of weeds, and information stakes that come with plants, even a plastic pot and some netting.  I called the garden centre and the owner told me that they make their own compost and that it's normal to find that sort of thing in their compost???  Remind me not to order soil from there again............

Anyhow, I am planting Gladioli and another annual that I can't for the life of me remember the name in that garden bed. Here is a link to a photo of the plant, it's the second photo the tall red plant.

I managed to get more grass cut before it got too hot.  Dd is coming over today, so she is going to start on the field for me.

We picked up these Emerald Cedars on sale this weekend. There are ten of them and I want to plant them on the north west side of the property to eventually make a wind break from the winter winds.  We are hoping to achieve this screening before we die, that is why we picked up four foot plants not little baby ones!!  I am willing to plant them a little further apart to alow them to fill in naturally, as on the internet they reccomend them being planted at least two feet from the trunk.  I was thinking closer to four feet apart?  I'll see, when I get them all set out.

The heat is forcing all the irises to bloom:

I finally got around to putting lemon juice on my quilt block to see if I can get rid of the scorch marks;

I just looked at it, and the scorch marks seem to be a bit lighter, so have put some more lemon juice on it.